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Indians shutout Royals 4-0; Three Takeaways

CLEVELAND-- It took the Indians a while to bring out the bats, but it was enough to escape with a win tonight.

The Indians improve to 72-56 by beating the Kansas City Royals 4-0, and look to sweep in the series finale tomorrow afternoon.

With tonight's win, the Indians now lead the majors in shutout wins at 14.

From the sixth inning on, the Indians had everything going their way, from bringing out the bats, to Bradley Zimmer's great catch, to the bullpen doing the rest.

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3. Mike Clevinger's strong start

Mike Clevinger improved to 7-5 this season by going six shutout innings, giving up four hits and striking out nine, matching his career high.

In his career, he is now 3-0 against Kansas City Royals.

Also, Clevinger was able to limit the damage in the fourth inning as he gave up back-to-back hits and walked Mike Moustakas. But, he had his defense right behind him as Jose Ramirez made a running catch to end the inning.

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2. Took the offense some time

This season, Royals starting pitcher Jason Hammel has been efficient against the Indians. Before his start tonight, his record was 3-0.

However, it didn't look like he had a perfect record against the Tribe once the offense got going.

Hammel had a no-hitter going until the sixth inning until Indians center fielder Bradley Zimmer broke up the no-no with a single. In the next at-bat, catcher Roberto Perez launched a two-run home run to left to finally put the Indians on the board.

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1. Bradly Zimmer game-saving play
If Bradly Zimmer did not make that incredible diving catch, we would've seen a different ball game. Though both pitchers were matching each other at that point , it was a saving play and keeping Kansas City off the board.

"He made a great play," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "His second step he kind of missed a step. I know there wasn’t a whole lot to spare, but my goodness."